The next BioShock Infinite DLC, Burial at Sea, takes us back to Rapture

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For some of us gamers, the most engaging aspect of a game is its environment and atmosphere. A large swath of games offer an acceptable form of these two aspects, but only a few can transcend adequacy. Silent Hill, a handful of Elder Scrolls games (specifically Oblivion’s Shivering Isles DLC), weird indies like Proteus, and BioShock’s Rapture. BioShock Infinite’s Columbia was certainly a well-detailed, interesting city, but the whole point of its Main Street, America theme was that it was familiar. Rapture, on the other hand, gave us something unfamiliar and uniquely creepy, and some of us really miss wandering around that broken city. It appears Irrational Games misses Rapture as well, because the next BioShock Infinite DLC, dubbed Burial at Sea, will take us back to that underwater dystopia.

Set on New Year’s Eve 1958, Burial at Sea features Booker DeWitt and Elizabeth in their own two-part detective story set in Rapture. Yes, 1958 is a year before the city began to fall apart, so we’ll get to see Rapture in its (presumed) functional glory — something series fans wanted in full ever since the first BioShock.

Eurogamer got a chance to interview Ken Levine, and gleaned a bit of information. The DLC will begin with Booker in his office as a woman that you don’t appear to know walks in — the beginning of every film noir ever. The story takes place on the night the bombing happened that originally began the revolution that took place in Rapture. So, it appears we’ll not only see Rapture functioning, but its fall as well — rather than picking up after the city had already fallen like in the original game.

Levine states that nearly everything in the DLC is created with the new engine, including the background city off in the submerged distance, which will now be 3D structures instead of 2D images. Players will not only meet characters from the first game before they’ve gone completely insane, but Levine notes that they won’t just be cameos either, and will be fully integrated into the story. It’ll be pretty interesting to see what Sander Cohen was like before he was the best crazy person we’ve seen in video games in a long time.

Though some of the experience will take place in a functional Rapture, we’ll also get to experience the crazy, splicer Rapture we all know and love. The gameplay will be more modified to fit the original’s, so rather than large-scale gunfights, we’ll be creeping around and watching splicers and enemies be crazy in their natural habitat. Levine also says that Big Daddies will make a return in some way.

If this seems like a ploy to appease series fans that miss Rapture, Levine also states that the story will be integrated into Infinite in some way, so at least it seems canonical.

It seems like this new DLC will be something akin to BioShock 2’s vaunted Minerva’s Den — a contained, though canonical experience that will feel like its own game rather than some add-on. Thankfully, it’ll take place in Rapture, a place some of us hold dear. For more good tidbits from Levine, like how he deals with internet pressure, check out Eurogamer’s interview.

BioShock Infinite’s first piece of DLC, Clash in the Clouds — an arena mode where players defeat waves of enemies — is out today for $5. There’s no timetable for Burial at Sea’s release, but both Booker and Elizabeth’s packs will run $14.99 each, and we can expect more details and a release date coming soon.